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This dashboard is part of the Project Summary Report on Foodborne Disease Outbreaks, which can be acessed on: GitHub or Kaggle.

A foodborne disease outbreak (FBO) is defined as two or more cases of similar illnesses caused by the same agent (e.g., a toxin, virus or bacteria) which are linked to the same food source. The CDC estimates that each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases.

The collection of data on foodborne outbreaks is imperative to identify the pathogen and the food vehicle involved, providing relevant information to monitor the prevalence of foodborne disease. In addition, such data contribute to evaluate trends and can provide the basis for regulatory changes and public health actions to improve food safety and reduce illness and death caused by foodborne diseases.

Geographical distribution

Geographical distribution of foodborne disease illnesses events

Time Series

Column

Events by year (1998-2015)

Events by month

Foods

Most frequent foods implicated in FBO

Food	outbreaks	illnesses	hospitalizations	fatalities
Chicken	1309	23464	1058	11
Salad	1331	36968	763	18
Beef	958	18962	975	18
Fish	644	3704	239	3
Rice	406	4925	152	9
Pork	390	8710	575	5
Turkey	336	10680	364	21
Meat	295	5103	214	23
Cheese	366	6924	547	18
Oyster	244	2742	73	2
Milk	217	5375	241	6
Fruit	171	5754	98	2
Egg	252	6739	341	3
Potato	291	9836	232	7

Chicken appeared in 1,309 outbreak events and was related to 23,464 illnesses, 1,058 hospitalizations and 11 fatalities events, while Salad appeared in 1,331 outbreak events and was related to 36,968 illnesses, 763 hospitalizations and 18 fatalities events. Regarding to fatalities, the most frequent food involved was Meat (23 events), followed by Turkey (21 events).

Causative Agents

Column

Foodborne disease events by causative agent

Species	outbreaks	illnesses	illnesses_per	hospitalizations	fatalities	fatalities_per	case_fatality_rate
Norovirus genogroup I	4227	117121	31.4	1213	8	2.4	0.01
Salmonella enterica	2403	65351	17.5	7480	86	25.5	0.13
Norovirus genogroup II	1462	39667	10.6	531	6	1.8	0.02
Clostridium perfringens	979	33139	8.9	162	15	4.5	0.05
Norovirus	1131	23103	6.2	212	5	1.5	0.02
Staphylococcus aureus	630	9649	2.6	499	3	0.9	0.03
Bacillus cereus	613	7143	1.9	75	3	0.9	0.04
Escherichia coli, Shiga toxin-producing	507	9401	2.5	1969	35	10.4	0.37
Scombroid toxin	389	1459	0.4	48	0	0.0	0.00
Campylobacter jejuni	308	6997	1.9	252	1	0.3	0.01
Ciguatoxin	271	1073	0.3	131	1	0.3	0.09
Shigella sonnei	133	6260	1.7	226	2	0.6	0.03
Vibrio parahaemolyticus	125	1654	0.4	50	0	0.0	0.00
Hepatitis A	88	2402	0.6	244	5	1.5	0.21
Listeria monocytogenes	60	816	0.2	578	121	35.9	14.83
Clostridium botulinum	57	220	0.1	166	10	3.0	4.55
Histamine	44	220	0.1	13	0	0.0	0.00
Cyclospora cayatenensis	30	1682	0.5	29	0	0.0	0.00
Mycotoxins	30	170	0.0	72	7	2.1	4.12
Escherichia coli, Enteropathogenic	29	1346	0.4	18	0	0.0	0.00

Contribution of each agent to illnesses events

Contribution of each agent to fatalities events

Locations

Row

Foodborne disease events by location

Location	outbreaks	illnesses	hospitalizations	fatalities
Restaurant	11536	159240	6121	78
Private Home/Residence	2314	39528	3437	92
Catering Service	1466	50145	711	9
Grocery Store	599	10223	775	15
Banquet Facility	476	18460	190	1
Fast Food Restaurant	434	6371	577	3

Restaurant, for example, was the most frequent place of exposure in the outbreaks reported. It was present in 11,536 outbreaks and was related to 159,240 illnesses, 6,121 hospitalizations and 78 fatalities events. This local seems to pose the greatest risk of foodborne events, although private home/residence was related with more fatalities events (92).

Row

Causative agents in restaurant

location	species	occurence
restaurant	norovirus genogroup i	1686
restaurant	salmonella enterica	1074
restaurant	norovirus genogroup ii	799
restaurant	clostridium perfringens	527
restaurant	norovirus unknown	479
restaurant	bacillus cereus	454

In restaurants, the most frequent causative agent was Norovirus genogroup I, followed by Salmonella enterica.

Causative agents in private home/residence

location	species	occurence
private home/residence	salmonella enterica	559
private home/residence	norovirus genogroup i	279
private home/residence	ciguatoxin	200
private home/residence	escherichia coli, shiga toxin-producing	138
private home/residence	norovirus genogroup ii	128
private home/residence	clostridium perfringens	120

The same agents (Salmonella enterica, Norovirus genogroup I), but in opposite position, was the most frequent in the outbreaks that took place in Private home/Residence.